In the field of electronic services (e-services), service providers seek to provide the services in an efficient and desirable manner to the user, or client. E-services include, for example, electronic web services provided via a global computer network, such as the Internet, as well as services provided independent of the Internet. Examples of conventional e-services include delivery of customized news and stock market updates, on-line ticket reservations, monitoring of flight statuses, and electronic advertisements.
One benefit of the e-services environment is that clients can dynamically identify the available web service that meets his or her needs, can examine the properties of the web service, and can determine how to access the service. Additionally, low-cost web services platforms and low-cost registration on web directories have emerged, allowing small providers to compete with larger providers in the e-services marketplace. Web services for both large and small providers may be listed in the same directories, and users can access e-services and e-service provider information to select an e-service based on quality and cost.
In this competitive environment, it is desirable for providers to deliver services with high, consistent, and predictable quality. Quality in this context includes both internal and external quality. Internal quality refers to quality as judged from the perspective of the provider, including such factors as operating costs. External quality refers to quality as judged from the perspective of the user, including such factors as speed, on-time delivery, low cost, and ease of access to the service.
Quality problems occur from a variety of sources. For example, an e-service such as a car rental service may involve multiple stages such as stages for browsing vehicles, selecting a vehicle, and paying for the vehicle. One or more of these stages may create a bottleneck that hinders performance and therefore quality of the service. In another case, the e-service may be overwhelmed by service requests from a particular origin or at a particular time of the day or week. For example, some services such as stock market updates may receive significant use during week days, but less use on weekends. The peak usage times may diminish quality in terms of user response time, if they are not handled properly. It is therefore desirable to analyze e-service execution and to identify quality problems.
Currently, providers have limited tools at their disposal to understand and analyze service execution to improve quality. What is needed is a way of analyzing e-services provided to a user to identify sources of quality problems and to remove those sources. What is also needed is a method and system for predicting e-service behavior based on previous transactions.